Saturday: Penfield over Pittsford As Season Ends

May 19, 2012 -

Penfield scored eight late goals to overcome a strong Pittsford performance and defeat the Panthers 16-13. In the last game of the season St. Francis (Section VI) defeated Bishop Kearney. All Section Five teams will now await the Seeding Meeting on Sunday to see the brackets for the Sectional Tournament which starts on Monday.

-- In an exciting end of the season game, Penfield overcame a five goal deficit and scored eight unanswered goals to beat Pittsford 16-13. Pittsford scored the first goal of the game at 8:54 and led the game until Penfield tied it at 12-12 with just 7:29 left in the fourth quarter. They then scored four goals in a row before the Panthers ended the game with a goal with less than two minutes left in the game.

Pittsford attackman Steven Ricci started things off for the Panthers with a drive down the center of the field and then dishing the ball off to Tyler Wehner on the crease. After Penfield was charged with a slashing penalty Albie DiPasquale fed the ball to Jack Lauroesch. It was the first of six assists for the Pittsford junior attackman. Twenty seconds later, Matt Condon scored on a drive from the wing to put the Patriots on the scoreboard. But a minute later the Panthers scored on another interior feed by DiPasquale to Lauroesch to give Pittsford a 3-1 lead with about six minutes left in the first quarter. Penfield's next trip down the field produced an unassisted goal by senior attackman Dan Manning who started behind the cage and made a close crease cut before shooting the ball to the far side pipe. Pittsford finished the first quarter with two goals. The first was by Nino DiPasquale on a pass from Steven Ricci and the second in man up by Lauroesch on a feed from Nino DiPasquale. Pittsford led 5-2 at the end of the first quarter.

Pittsford wasted no time in the second quarter, scoring at 11:37,when senior midfielder Matt Bilak drove the ball down the center of the field after a transition and scored with a hard bounce shot. Two minutes later Albie DiPasquale drove from behind the cage and passed the ball out front to junior midfielder Ben Overslaugh who scored from top right. After the next Pittsford clear, Albie took the ball quickly behind the Penfield goal and drove close to the crease for a goal that put the Panthers up 7-3 with 7:36 left in the half. The Patriots dug down deep and scored the next three goals to take the score to 7-6 Pittsford. Andrew Schoeneck scored a man up goal on a hard underhand shot from the left wing after receiving the ball from Jonathan Spaan. On the following face off Connor Russell, who won twenty-three of twenty-eight draws in the game, picked up the ground ball and moved the ball to Huntington who scored in fast break. The Panthers committed a slashing call during the play and Penfield ended up with a man up goal twenty seconds later. Schoeneck scored on the inside with a sidearm shot after getting the ball from Condon. In less than a minute and a half, the patriots closed the gap to 7-6. Pittsford took back control of the game with two more goals before the end of the second quarter. Wehner scored on an outside shot from top right and Nino scored on a feed from his brother Albie DiPasquale to end the half with the Panthers up 9-6.

Pittsford continued their run of four goals with two more at the top of the third quarter. Ricci sent the ball to senior midfielder Corey Parke who scored yet another goal from the left wing. Less than two minutes later when Penfield overthrew a pass near midfield, Albie DiPasquale got the ball and, under pressure, passed the ball to senior middie Marc Weyl who was alone on the crease. With Pittsford up 11-6, Penfield looked like they were in trouble. Bilak, however, would not have it, scoring two goals in a sixteen second period, starting at 6:27. His first goal was on a drive right down the center of the field. On his way flags flew and Pittsford was assessed a slashing penalty. Penfield set up quickly in man up and Bilak scored on a feed from Condon. Several minutes later Pittsford scored a fast break goal in transition when Parke sent the ball to Lauroesch. It was, however, the last goal by the Panthers for almost sixteen minutes of play as Penfield scored the next eight goals. Condon found Bilak for the first goal with 3:13 remaining in the third quarter and Schoeneck scored an unassisted goal with just eight second left in the quarter which ended with Pittsford leading 12-10.

The fourth quarter belonged to the Patriots as they scored six more goals in about six and a half minutes. With 8:24 left in the game, Pittsford goalie Kyle Lake made a beautiful one-on-one save, but the ball popped out in front of the crease and was pushed by Bilak to Huntington, who scooped up the ball and put it into the net. This man up goal was followed by another man up goal when freshman midfielder Carter Jordan drove from the top for an unassisted goal which tied the game at 12-12. Less than a minute later Bilak score another from the wing to put Penfield ahead, 13-12. After a difficult ground ball effort, Penfield called a time out to control the ball (and preserve their momentum). During the time out the very vocal parents and fans, sitting in the "visitor" bleachers behind the bench area produced some loud and enthusiastic cheers for the Penfield players. At least one player was fired up as the result. Huntington scored three goals in less than three minutes to give Penfield a 16-12 advantage. The first two were assisted by sophomore midfielder Mitch Standera and the last one was assisted by Condon. Face off expert, Connor Russell was certainly responsible for much of the success, not only at the point, but throughout the game as he won face off after face off for the Patriots. Pittsford closed out the scoring in the game with a goal by Lauroesch, assisted by Albie DiPasquale.

Although the game was exciting for both teams, and both teams were after the "bragging rights", it is very likely that the two teams will face each other in the semifinal round of the Class A tournament, which starts with the out bracket games on Monday.